The recent discussion about the role of computers in Mat-Su schools and their use by students has accomplished something that most issues regarding education can't produce: dialogue between adults and children.
More than the usual discussion about grades, it's a discussion about what adults and children expect from their different perspectives on the same educational experience.
It was nice to see the Matanuska-Susitna School District act the adult in this one.
When problems surfaced regarding continued abuse of school computers, of course the right answer was to limit student access.
One answer, since firewalls apparently were ineffective, was to require a teacher to file a request to the administration to open a site, citing a reasonable need by a selected student or class.
What a thought, expecting teachers to actually monitor students' work. They are, after all, on the front lines of education.
How students can download porn for hours is beyond me. To blame it on the failure of firewalls is a fine excuse, but firewalls shouldn't excuse educators from doing their jobs.
Students playing video games for hours? Listening to music or watching videos in school?
This is exactly the kind of exposure teachers won't need the next time they come to the bargaining table wanting more money and more perks.
Obviously teachers can't be everywhere, so they need technical support to help them do what they should be doing: teaching instead of looking over shoulders.
Why my workplace can protect me, an adult, from certain sites and a school district can't limit students' access to unsavory or unnecessary sites is inexcusable.
Until the system is fixed, the school district acted to protect all students because of the acts of a few. That action offended the majority of good students, as it should have.
They've been denied a tool to help them learn.
A friend of mine sides with the students: Why punish all the students because of a few bad apples? She says expel the guilty and spare the students who make an effort to achieve their goals.
She, of course, is wrong.
Tossing out a dozen students wouldn't have created the dialogue that's taking place throughout the community. The team concept works. One individual messes up, everybody is punished.
Eventually, a work ethic evolves that benefits all.
What the school district administration did by limiting access to all students because of the bad behavior of a few will bring about more effort to solve the problem.
Good students who haven't abused the system will bring reasonable ideas to the table that ensures they have the necessary tools they need to learn. Teachers who want to help students to learn will come forward with more vigorous plans to make sure students, when given the opportunity to use computers, will be learning, not gawking.
The administration will bring a plan that satisfies its own concerns regarding legalities and its main goal that students succeed in school and later in life.
Left out of most of this conversation is that many successful people have been educated over the years without benefit of computers. Students need to be sent the message that using a computer at school is a benefit to their education, not a right.
As a society, we have an obligation to teach every child among us, but we are under no obligation to teach children who are opposed to learning by the rules of their institution.
Students who find out their peers are abusing the computers at school should make it known to the administration so they don't lose their privileges.
Yes, squealing sometimes is necessary.
I guarantee you: The student who downloaded porn for two hours has three or four buddies. And he told them what he saw and taught them how to see what he saw.
Warts spread.
Here's why the school district must find a way to stop this nonsense of children accessing whatever they want. Jackhole111112232 writes this opinion on a Daily News forum site: "School is too uptight anymore, why not let our kids look at some boobies while they're doing some research? I think that's the basis this country was founded on, being able to see some boobies. That's my two cents."
If you missed the forum responses, read more opinions at community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/102883
T.C. Mitchell of Palmer is the parent of two children in the Matanuska-Susitna School District system. He's an assistant features editor at the Daily News.
